


Great Minds

by sesshachan



Series: Great Minds [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, James Bond (Craig movies), Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: Brainy is the new sexy, F/M, Lunch date
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-22
Updated: 2013-08-22
Packaged: 2017-12-24 08:39:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/937910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sesshachan/pseuds/sesshachan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>MI6 has Q, while the Unspeakables have Hermione. Really, their just doing the same job, in different capacities. Their superiors know only a fraction of what they're capable of when they are working solo. Collaboration, however, is beautiful synergy. <br/>And brainy is totally the new sexy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Great Minds

Q was nervous. It would be hard for the untrained eye to notice. He sat, sipping at a cup of Darjeeling while typing code with this spare hand into his personal tablet (not to be confused with the tablet he used for work) and seemingly was paying no attention to his surroundings. Superficially Q was simply another café patron checking his email. Then again, superficially, Q was just a nerdy hipster who looked like he couldn't harm anyone much less take down whole countries with a few lines of judiciously targeted computer code.

Appearances, deceit, and all that rot.

In fact, Q was paying quite a bit of attention to his surroundings. He had hacked into the CCTV feeds and was watching them with one eye while a  facial recognition program ran alongside. In another window he was jotting down notes for a personal project that had less to do with MI6 and more with what Q was currently nervous about.

A chime sounded from Q's tablet and one of the camera's footage enlarged with the target highlighted in a brief still. Q closed the facial recognition program and slipped his way out of the CCTV network. He absently checked the time. A little later than arranged, but not unforgivably so. After all, Q was no stranger to getting caught up and forgetting even what day it was. That was what minions were for.

Sorry, not minions, highly trained technical staff and respected coworkers. He really should be more careful with that. People tended to get missish about labels.

Q slid his chair back and got to his feet with a fond smile. “Hermione,” he greeted. Hermione returned the smile and they exchanged kisses on the cheek. Q held Hermione's chair as she seated herself before returning to his own chair. “How are you?”

“Glad to be out of the office,” Hermione admitted. She surreptitiously cast proximity based privacy wards about their table. “I think this is the first daylight I've seen all week. Thank you for giving me an excuse to get out.”

“It's my pleasure,” Q said.

“And you? How have you been, Quentin?”

Q shrugged and waved a waitress over to take Hermione's order. “About the same as usual. No one appreciates just how much work me and mine do.”

“One cannot know how dangerous a virtual attack can be until it is unleashed upon the world,” Hermione said, nodding. “Your agents don't realize that you alone do more work before tea than five of them do in a week. It's the same for me and the hitwizards. They have no appreciation.”

“I know! It's all about exploding pens and x-ray specs,” Q snorted.

“And whatever charmed trinkets will cause the most damage but take up the least room,” Hermione continued.

“Double-oh agents.”

“Hitwizards.”

Hermione and Q shared a commiserating look. Conversation paused while Hermione's lunch order was brought and set on the table.

“Before I forget,” Hermione said, fishing about in her purse. She pulled out a tablet that looked remarkably similar to Q's except that Hermione's had runes etched decoratively all about it's casing. “I worked on that coding for you. Brilliant idea, by the way, mixing arithmancy and computer code. I'm not sure how well this will work for you – me and code, you know – but it should help. I'll email it now.”

When Q received the package he scanned his eyes over the contents and smiled. “This is brilliant,” he admitted freely. Hermione beamed. Q knew coding wasn't Hermione's area of study but she had learned enough to tinker with mixing mathematical magics with computer code. The coding was simple, but the inserted arithmantic formulae was exactly what he had been hoping for.

“Do you think it will work?” she asked.

“It should,” Q said, reading the code carefully, “Do you mind if I work a bit more on this?” he asked, looking up.

“Mind?” Hermione laughed. “Please! I had no idea what I was doing. I just worked with the template you gave me. Insert formula A into space B. It's so far from my area of expertise. I would love to see what you can do with this.”

Q buried a half grin in his teacup. “You don't give yourself enough credit, Hermione,” he said.

“Please,” Hermione wrinkled her nose. “I'm giving myself _too much_ credit.

Q just leveled her a pointed look. They had had similar conversations before. He did not need to use spoken words to remind her his opinion of that kind of attitude. After all, he he – a genius with only a handful of peers – thought her brilliant, then it simply must be so. Hermione rolled her eyes at him. She was well aware of what he was thinking.

“Code, Quentin,” she elaborated, “is your _demesne,_ not mine, and I will happily leave you to it.”

“Just as I will leave you to your arithmancy and runes,” Q conceded. He skimmed through the new algorithm while Hermione busied herself with devouring her luncheon. It really was impressive work. Particularly helpful were the notes and footnotes for each of the arithmantic insertions which explained what each equation was meant to do and how certain equations complemented and bolstered others.

“Questions?” Hermione asked.

“Hm?” Q looked up.

Hermione pointed between her eyebrows. “You're frowning. Here. What is it?”

“Nothing,” Q assured. “Your work is impeccable.”

“But?”

Q shook his head. “No but. But arithmancy is a bit beyond my expertise. Thank you for the notes, by the way. Big help.” He smiled at her.

“Glad you appreciate them,” she laughed. “It drove my friends up the wall in school. I have this _need_ to research everything as much as I can, and then make note.”

“Not necessarily a fault,” Q felt compelled to say. Then he changed the subject. “How is that working for you?” he asked, nodding to Hermione's tablet. It was the result of their first personal (not professional, there had already been a few of those) collaboration. Hermione had been gazing wistfully at Q's tech every time they had met. It was readily explained that magic and computer technology did not mix kindly. The burner phone that Hermione used as a demonstration puffing black smoke as the interior overloaded and fused was all it took to take pity on his counterpart and assist in figuring out how to buffer individual pieces of tech so that they could be used around magic. Hermione's tablet was a modified (re: software personalized by Q himself) iPad that Hermione had developed a set of protective rune sequences for and then carefully, by hand, etched each line into the plastic casing. That had been a month ago.

“It's a dream,” Hermione sighed. “You have no idea how wonderful it is to be able to type up my notes rather than write them down with a quill. If I can get this to work on a cell phone as well...” she trailed off with a look of rapture in her eyes.

“Welcome to the twenty-first century,” Q quipped.

“I never left!” Hermione protested mildly. “It was stolen away from me. I was just figuring out how to maneuver around the firewalls on my parent's computer when all of a sudden it just _fried_. After the second Mum and Dad didn't let me touch it again.”

“How old were you?”

Hermione shrugged. “Seven? I was restricted to what I could get out off hardcopy books after that. I think I might have overcompensated a little.”

Q huffed a little laugh. “So, a phone?” he asked. “We can do that. Any particular model you  have in mind?”

They talked tech and magic until Q's phone rang, calling him back to MI6. He apologized as he got up, dropping enough cash on the table to cover both his and Hermione's orders. Hermione also got to her feet.

“Don't worry about it,” she told him. “I know exactly how it is. I should be getting back as well.”

Q hesitated for a moment. “Hermione,” he started. “perhaps sometime we could... have dinner?”

Hermione blinked. Her lips twitched up on one side as she studied his face. “I'd like that.”

“Wonderful,” Q breathed out in a elated sigh. They said their goodbyes and Q slipped into the discrete black sedan that held his chauffeur and bodyguard. Minutes later his tablet pinged with a personal email notification.

_Took you long enough to ask me._

**Author's Note:**

> I have a few more stories planned for this universe, all of them short, so far.


End file.
